Lately...

First, I just need to say that I am SO HAPPY. I absolutely love my life, love my husband & baby, love where I live (but I promise that will change when it gets to 100 degrees and up), love our ward, love my friends, love my callings in the ward, and love how I feel these days. Sometimes I have those moments where I feel so much joy when I look at Grace that it makes me want to cry. When I wake up in the morning, the weather outside is so beautiful and my day doesn't feel complete unless I go on a walk at least once that day. It's not uncommon for me to go the entire day without going anywhere in the car, but it's totally fine with me! I love being at home, or walking to a friend's house or to the park.

Grace is usually pretty chill right after I feed her. Here she is just lounging and digesting.

Tired out in the stroller. It helps that the sun makes her warm and cozy.
On saturday, 4 families in our ward threw a combined birthday party BBQ for their 1-year-olds. It was so cute and all 4 kids were lined up in their high chairs as they ate their cakes. The party was a lot of fun and lots of people were there. Plus, the cake my friend made for all the guests to eat was incredible. I should have taken a picture. I have such talented friends, I tell ya!

Our little cowgirl. She is even wearing a onesie that has pictures of horseshoes and horses all over it. (Thanks B&A!)
We had our good friends Nephi, Melanie, & Anderson over for dinner. We always have a great time with them!
Anderson and Grace. She looks kind of huge in this picture... I promise she's a lot smaller than 1-year-old Anderson!
This morning, a bunch of the ladies and kids from our ward/neighborhood got together for an easter egg hunt and picnic at the park. There was quite a line-up of strollers. It was fun to watch all the kids running around picking up eggs.
Next year Grace will appreciate easter egg hunting. It'll be so much fun!
And once again, Grace was super tired out after an hour at the park and hanging out in the sun. I love that she sleeps so well in her stroller still!
Ryan is amazing and pushing through finals week. He has taken 4 tests so far, and has 5 more to go. My goodness, he is such a good man and a good student. I don't know HOW he does what he does.

After he is done on friday, we will head to St. George for a few days to meet up with my parents, sister, and her husband and kids. We're sooo excited for a vacation, and it'll be fun to have a change of scenery. Then we will spend the rest of spring break in Salt Lake.

Another fun thing to mention is that we are expecting our new nephew to be born sometime in the next few weeks. I'm SO EXCITED for Ben & Amanda to have this little man in their home and that Grace and I will be able to meet him in May. Hang in there Amanda!!

Today

Today was 80 degrees and beautiful!

Today I was really sore after running for the first time yesterday. But I still went out on a walk this morning to help my muscles heal quicker.

Today (all day) I was looking forward to Ryan coming home so that we could get a picture of the 3 of us in GREEN!

Today I was at Target and it felt like Christmas. All the workers were wearing red and most of the shoppers were wearing GREEN.

Today I finally got around to finishing a few things that have been hanging over my head for months. It feels like a weight off my shoulders.

Today I baked some cookies for a baby shower tomorrow. On the Nestle chocolate chip package it said "Open Here to Make Sweet Memories". It made me smile. :)

Today I watched the movie Fireproof, and I really loved it.

Today Grace took a 3 hour nap! It was awesome. But then I found myself really missing her by hour 3, and was ready for her to wake up and be with me.

Today was left-over night. I sure love left-over night.

Today I was able to share a small part of my Testimony with a friend who is going through a rough time. It brought tears to my eyes as I realized that sharing that piece of my heart with her didn't end up being for her benefit... it was for me.

Today was a good day.

How was yours?

4 Months

Our baby girl is 4 months old! Grace has already changed so much in these last couple months that I'm finding myself wishing it would go slower. I already miss the cuddley newborn stage where she would fall asleep in my arms. It's not often she'll let me cradle her before putting her down for a nap or for bed at night without screaming at me. She will, however, allow Ryan to hold her during those times. So I'm glad for that at least!

Things about 4-month-old Grace...

-weight 13 lb 1 oz (36th percentile!!)

-height 23.75 inches (30th percentile!!)

-head 16 inches (40th percentile)

-She has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks straight (except the last couple nights). I "dream feed" her at 10pm (she goes down for the night around 8:30) and then usually around 7am when she wakes up the next day.

-Grace still takes great naps, usually lasting 1.5 to 2 hours each time.

-She nurses 6-7 times a day, roughly every 3 hours. We'll be trying some rice cereal soon.

-Grace is really good at grabbing toys dangling in front of her and will spend a good amount of time doing that by herself without fussing. I love it! I'm so proud of her for getting so good at it already.

-She absolutely loves bath time (which we do every morning... I'm paranoid about the spit-up smell). She'll smile at and watch the wash cloth as I'm getting it soaped up and seems to know it's coming for her. She has also started to kick and splash in her baby bath. Maybe she's starting to understand how fun "splashing" is.

-Grace likes to be sitting up. If she's propped up even a little bit, she will use those strong little stomach muscle to try as hard as she can to sit up.

-She's wearing 3 month clothes now (even some 0-3 sizes still), has just started using size 2 diapers, and still only fits newborn size shoes.

-Grace knows that the TV is a fun thing to watch... which is horrible, I know. I'll lay her down on her play mat and she'll turn her head towards it and watch the screen. It's definitely something I need to be more aware of and not let her do so much.

-She's getting a little flat spot on the back of her head and we're doing several things to help get rid of it (or not allow it to get worse, at least). We lay her on her side to sleep and switch the side each nap time. I also took her in to see Dr. Galin (the OMM doc at the school) so she could work on it. She has another appointment with her next week.

-Grace has still never been sick since her birth (knock on wood), and we're so grateful for that.

-She has the most beautiful big blue eyes and gives us the happiest smiles. Hopefully she'll start laughing more often as well.

-When I try to put her in the car seat, 98% of the time she'll flip out, arch her back, and does all she can to keep me from forcing her arms through the straps.

-Same thing with getting her dressed. The moment I put anything over her head, she immediately brings her arms into her body and tries to put her fists in her mouth so I can't put her arms in the shirt. And then she screams at me when I force them in the arm holes. She's her father's child! (stubborn)

-We still swaddle her each time she sleeps because having her arms free keeps her awake. I know we need to break that habit before it's an issue... Maybe when it's warmer and we don't worry about her being too cold at night.

Wow, apparently I can just go on and on about our Gracie May. I do have to say that it's sort of strange for me to think of Grace having an age. It's hard to explain what I mean, but I feel like she is just HER. She's not "a baby" or "a 4-month old". She's just Grace. Does that even make sense? I just feel like when she looks into my eyes she has so much wisdom and she knows more than what I've always thought of a 4-month old to know. I wonder if anyone ever feels that way about their kids. Even when I look at other people's children I only see them as whatever age they are, or whatever stage they're in (toddlers, newborn, 1 year old, etc). But with Grace, my own baby, it's sort of strange to put a label on her like that.

She's just Grace! Ya know?...

Weight-loss honesty

After 4 months, I'm happy to announce that I am officially back to pre-pregnancy weight! Yay! All of my clothes fit again (although I still have the little stomach pooch where the skin isn't quite back to normal after being stretched out). I'm feeling SO GREAT these days and I can't explain how much more comfortable in my own skin I feel again. I'm sure most people know how frustrating it can be to feel yucky in anything you try on and not having anything that fits just right. I'm also feeling very grateful that my metabolism was such that I was able to lose the weight like I have. I know some women find that the pregnancy weight which took them 9 months to put on can sometimes take another 9 months to take off.

Ryan, my older sister Lindsey, and I competed against each other in a weight loss competition. Some of you may remember the "Lose 10 lbs in 2 months" competition I did last year at this time with my ward relief society. When I did it last year, I only made it a few weeks into the competition (and a couple pounds lost) when I started suffering from horrible morning sickness. I didn't get to truly finish it out back then, and I was happy to have a reason to try it again this year! The competition is simply a point-system and I ended up beating both my sister (just barely) and Ryan in points. I won a little bit of play money for myself and the satisfaction of losing all 10 pounds! I admit I still have 5 lbs I'd like to lose so we'll see how that goes. I fell off the wagon the last couple of days because I have nobody checking up on me anymore and I wanted a little break from it. But I formed some great habits through the 8 weeks which I do not want to lose, so I need to keep up those things. I also want to start running pretty soon... which may be hard to work in since I don't have a jogger stroller and Ryan isn't home very often to watch Grace while I go work-out. But I may be able to talk him into sticking around for an extra hour on saturday mornings so I can go running at least once a week. :) A group of my friends here in Henderson are going to do the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay in October and I'd love to do it with them. So that relay and my last 5 lbs are my goals at this point.

Wish me luck!

Laughing!

Isn't it sweet? This is a brand new thing for Grace! Last night was the first time she did the continuous giggles like that. She has done short little giggles here and there, but tonight I hurried and grabbed the video camera when Ryan started making her laugh again. I'm so glad we caught it!

I can't believe how quickly she's growing. She'll be 4 months old on tuesday, and I'll post her numbers and info on thursday after her check-up. Wish us luck on the next round of shots. :( I hate that part.

Daddy Time

Ya gotta try 'em!

Ryan made me THE BEST steak and veggie stir-fry I've ever had. He found the recipe in his triathlon magazine and insisted on making it for me. Who am I to argue with that? It was wonderful and very healthy with all fresh ingredients served over brown rice.

BEEF STIR-FRY

1.5-2 lbs steak
4 Tbs black beans
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbs peanut oil (we used regular oil)
1/2 lb snow peas (they are way expensive right now so we only used about a handful of them instead)
1/2 lb broccoli crowns
1/2 cup cashews (we didn't use these)
1 tsp sesame oil

Cut meat into very thin slices. Rinse black beans under cold water, drain and mash with a fork. Combine with garlic. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, sugar cornstarch and 1/2 cup water. Heat wok/large skillet, add peanut oil and stir-fry the beef until color changes. Then add the bean and garlic mixture. Stir-fry for two minutes, and then add soy mixture and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thick. Sprinkle with sesame oil. Microwave the snow peas and broccoli crowns (we also added matchstick carrots) on high for two minutes. Add the peas and broccoli to the beef mixture and mix well. At the end, add cashews and toss. Serve over a bed of brown rice.

Tonight I made a super easy soup which we ate in bread bowls. Yum!! (Thanks to a friend in my ward for sending me the recipe) It was so good and even that much better in the bread bowls. Smith's won't be baking and selling them much longer so we have to get our fill while we still can. Plus it's almost into the 70s here and the soup season is almost gone. :(

CHICKEN & WILD RICE SOUP

2 CUPS COOKED, SHREDDED CHICKEN
1 CAN (10.5 OUNCES) CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP
1 PACKAGE (8 OUNCES) SLICED FRESH MUSHROOMS
1 CUP DICED CARROT
1 CUP DICED ONION
1 CUP SLICED CELERY
1 BOX (6 OUNCES) LONG GRAIN AND WILD RICE MIX
3 CANS (14 OUNCES EACH) CHICKEN BROTH
4 CUPS WATER
PEPPER TO TASTE

Combine the soup, mushrooms, chicken, carrots, celery, rice, onion, and the seasoning packet from the rice in a crock pot. Stir in water and broth. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for about 3 hours.

ENJOY!